The invention relates to splash bars such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,105, and more particularly relates to splash bars that are inexpensive to manufacture and to transport.
As is stated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,105 and in the above-referenced provisional patent application, splash bars are used in cooling towers. In a cooling tower, water to be cooled is broken up into smaller droplets and commingled with cooling air. This process of breaking up the water increases the surface area over which the water makes contact with the air, and therefore facilitates heat transfer between the water and the air. To accomplish this breakup, the water is directed onto fixed barriers, called splash bars, which cause the water to splash about within the cooling tower.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,105 discloses a particular type of splash bar. This splash bar is a tubular structure made up of strand material. The strand material has openings (called interstices) through which water may pass. This creates a great splash effect and prevents a water film (i.e. a sheet of water that is not divided into small droplets and that therefore exposes less surface area to the cooling air) from forming on the splash bars.
Although existing tubular splash bars are effective and commercially acceptable, they are expensive to ship. This is because tubular splash bars take up a relatively large volume. A stacked-up bundle of tubular splash bars must include one tubular void for each splash bar in the stack, which means that the splash bars cannot be densely packed during shipment.
It would be advantageous to provide a splash bar that was less expensive to ship and that could be densely packed during shipment.
Accordingly, one object of the invention is to provide a splash bar that can be less expensively shipped and more densely packed during shipment.
Another object is, in general, to improve on known splash bars of this general type.
In accordance with the invention, a tubular splash bar is manufactured using conventional techniques (extrusion being a suitable one). The thus-manufactured splash bar is a tubular, self-supporting structure formed of plastic strands. Large openings are located between the strands. In use, the structure is highly open to water passing through the openings. Then, in accordance with the invention, the tubular structure is bisected along its axis, as by cutting. This forms two self-supporting half-shells.
The half-shells have open tops, so that one can be stacked above the one below it. As a result, the tubular voids that exist when stacking tubular splash bars are eliminated, and the splash bars can be stacked densely so they take up less space during shipment.